Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne™ is a video game created by Cornelius Hawthorne. It was a multi-player game whose purpose was to provide a challenge for Pierce to overcome in order to win his inheritance. The study group joins forces with Pierce to conquer the game and must deal with not
only with the malevolent avatar of Cornelius but also a competing player with legitimate claims to the Hawthorne fortune. The game's first appearance was in the Season Three episode "Digital Estate Planning".

Some time after his father Cornelius Hawthorne's death, Pierce received a cryptic message from his dad's personal assistant and executor of his estate Gilbert Lawson. He was asked to bring seven of his closest friends to Hawthorne Industries to deal with the matter of his inheritance. Pierce brought the study group and was told by Lawson that if he wanted his money he and his friends will have to beat a video game designed by his father. After the group agreed they entered 7 of the 8 gaming interface booths. They logged into the game and were given custom avatars to use. After acclimating to the virtual environment, they were officially welcomed to the game by the avatar of Cornelius Hawthorne. The digitized host belittled his son and encouraged the study group to individually compete for the prize.

A Cornelius avatar welcomes the study group.

The group assures Pierce that they won't do as the avatar suggests and that they will assist him in winning the game. Another avatar then appears, controlled by Gilbert, who had logged into the game via the vacant eighth booth. He attacks the group killing them all and sending them back to the start of the game. During one of the confrontations he admits the personal stake he has in winning the inheritance himself as he is the illegitimate son of a union between Cornelius and Pierce's old nanny's hot cousin. He uses his advanced knowledge of the game to beat the study group and Pierce to the final stage. It's there that he encounters the avatar of Cornelius. The program identifies Gilbert and offers him the inheritance only if he signs a legal document that ensures he will never reveal his true relationship to Cornelius.

Gilbert learns that the prize has conditions.

Gilbert rejects the offer, which causes the avatar to attack him. He is saved by the timely arrival of the study group and their new allies. The Cornelius avatar upgrades the challenge and transforms into a giant to deal with them. The alliance manages to weaken him with powerful new weapons they acquired, but the avatar is still strong enough to eliminate most of them. Pierce then arrives riding on top of a large missile and engages in a suicide run that destroys the body of the avatar. With only the head remaining, the Cornelius avatar acknowledges he has been defeated. Pierce and the study group agree to forfeit the game and allow Gilbert to claim the reward, feeling that he earned it for all the years he had to put up with the real Cornelius.

Back in the early 1980's, Pierce advised his father that he shift his company's focus from moist towelettes to the burgeoning video game industry that was just starting up. Cornelius refused, but to spite his son and rub it in how wrong he was to suggest such a thing, decided to secretly create a video game just for him and put Pierce's inheritance on the line. It's assumed Cornelius entrusted his personal assistant Gilbert Lawson to oversee this assignment as he bragged about being privy to the secrets of the game. Chinese programmers labored on the game for thirty years, and when it was completed, he had them deported back to their homeland. Lawson was to serve as overseer of the game while Pierce and his friends played but instead joined in and used his beta testing knowledge to give him an advantage over the other participants.

A group of warriors are summoned to the kingdom of Hawkthorne™ to take on a quest to recover the fabled "White Diamond of Discipline"™ found in the depths of the dark pit of despair known as The Black Cave™. They can choose to cooperate in this mission or go at it alone but in the end only one of them will be able to claim the ultimate prize: the throne of Hawkthorne™. However, before they can be named the new ruler of the land, a final challenge must be overcome, a ghostly echo of a fearsome opponent whose wrath reaches from beyond the grave...

The game can only be played by eight participants. A linear quest is given to the players and an overworld map displays the various levels and locations which must be cleared to progress. The gameplay itself is a mixture of 2D side scrolling and RPG elements with a deep customization system installed. Players are able to create powerful personalized tools and weapons from various items they collect. A promotion system allows players to develop and upgrade their character's powers and abilities. Maxing out certain achievements allows players access to further customization tools including creating new audio files or even the making of entirely new NPC characters. Players are seemingly given an infinite amount of lives to complete the quest but are sent back to the start of the game stripped of any equipment or items earned if their life points reach zero.

Mode 7 and blast processing features

Presentation: The game is presented in a side scrolling format with an 8-bit graphic style in keeping with the games released around the time the developers started programming it thirty years ago. A super deformed look is used for both main and background characters giving the game a cartoonish feel. The palette is not as limited as 8-bit as seen by the bright quality and richness of colors to be found in the game. A graphics mode similar to the Super Nintendo'sMode 7 is also present. Audio is high quality with lots of dialogue having been recorded for the game.

State of the art interactivity

Hardware: The game is played inside 8 booths containing interlinked PC consoles. A camera attachment snaps a photo of the players which is scanned to create custom avatars based on their likenesses. Headsets are provided for players to communicate with one another and the avatars mouth movements synch when the players speak. An arcade stick and keyboard are given for controlling the avatar and typing specific commands. Weight sensors in the chairs monitor if the players leave before the game's completion; leaving for longer than thirty seconds results in an automatic forfeit.

Smooth game play

Controls: Avatar movements include the usual running, jumping, ducking, sliding and even digging. Combat is a combination of the platforming staple of jumping onto the heads of opponents and hacking and slashing enemies armed or using standard punches and kicks. Projectile attacks with weapons or magic are also an option. Item drops occur when enemies are defeated leaving either coins or rare items. These can be used to further enhance fighting ability with customized or purchased weapons. Magic and potion making skills are also available as well to augment characters strength and defense although a high rank and skill level is needed to use these abilities effectively.

The son of the games creator looking to win his inheritance with his friends help. He wields a mace as his main weapon and later deals a decisive blow to the Cornelius avatar by riding a missile into the final boss.

The leader of the study group inspires them to battle. Has the unique slide attack and tosses bombs as his main attack. He later is armed with a cannon that uses Abed and Hilda's children as ammunition.

The union of Abed and Hilda produced an army of children which Abed used to create powerful weapons for the study group. The only words they speak are their father's signature catchphrase "Coolcoolcool!".

Enemies

Hippie

The first stage enemies. Says "Peace!" and "Love!" and then attacks players while saying "Sex!"

Jive Turkey

Appears in the Dark Cavern and attacks en masse while shouting "Gobble!"

King of the Jive Turkeys

The boss of the Dark Cavern stage and leader of the Jive Turkeys. Defeating him earns players The White Diamond.

Cornelius Boss Form One

The first form of Cornelius, a disembodied glowing red head who attacks players by raining fire down on them.

Cornelius Boss Form Two

The ultimate form of Cornelius is the final challenge players must overcome to beat the game and earn the prize.

The graphics are evocative of 8 bit classics from various late 80's/early 90's home video game franchises with the Super Mario Brothers and Zelda franchises being the most obvious influences on the game.

The gameplay is reminiscent of this side scrolling action RPG. This game saw the introduction of a few firsts that later became staples of the franchise including use of NPC characters, and particularly the advanced combat controls (ducking, jumping and blocking).

This is how you encounter the glitch Pokemon Missingno in the game: old man trainer (The Pokemon catching tutorial in Viridian City), fly on a bird (Use Fly), cinnamon island (Cinnabar Island), seal along the shore (The Surf sprite looks like Seal. Use it along the shore of Cinnabar Island)

In 2012 a Community fan known as Deferman on the social media news site Reddit created the foundations of a real life version of "Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne". It was crowd sourced and further developed by volunteers whose goal was to faithfully recreate the look and feel of the game. After several years a completed version was uploaded in June of 2015. The official site for the game along with a download of the latest version can be found here. The Reddit discussion and development forum for the game can be found here. Derferman also created the "missing" end tag that Harmon originally planned for "Digital Estate Planning" which can be downloaded here.